New research suggests Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine may protect against a mutation found in two more easily spread variants of the coronavirus that broke out in Great Britain and South Africa.
Those variants are of global concern. They carry multiple mutations but have one in common that is believed to be why they are more contagious. Called N501Y, it’s a minor change in one spot of the spike protein that envelops the virus.
Most vaccines being rolled out around the world train the body to recognize and fight that peak protein. Pfizer worked with researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston for lab tests to see if the mutation affected the vaccine’s ability to do that.
They used blood samples from 20 people who received the vaccine, made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, in a large study of the injections. Antibodies from those vaccine recipients have successfully fended off the virus in lab dishes, according to the study posted late Thursday on an online site for researchers.
The research is preliminary and has not yet been reviewed by experts, an important step for medical research.
But “it was a very reassuring finding that at least this mutation, which people were most concerned about, doesn’t appear to be a problem” for the vaccine, said Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Philip Dormitzer.
A similar vaccine from Moderna is being rolled out in the US and Europe, and was released in Britain on Friday. Moderna is doing similar tests to determine if the shot also works against the variants, as are the makers of other types of COVID-19 vaccines.
But Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, recently told The Associated Press that vaccines are designed to recognize multiple parts of the spike protein, making it unlikely that a single mutation is sufficient to block them. Still, testing is needed to be sure.
Viruses constantly undergo minor changes as they spread from person to person. Scientists have used these small changes to track how the coronavirus has moved around the world since it was first discovered in China about a year ago.
British scientists have said the variant found in the UK – which has become the dominant type in parts of England – still appears to be susceptible to vaccines. That mutant has now been found in the US and many other countries.
But the variant first discovered in South Africa has an additional mutation that scientists are on the lookout for, one called E484K.
The Pfizer study found that the vaccine appeared to work against 15 additional possible virus mutations, but E484K was not one of those tested. Dormitzer said it’s next on the list.
If the virus eventually mutates enough that the vaccine needs to be modified – just as flu shots are modified most years – adapting the recipe wouldn’t be difficult for his company and the like to incorporate. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are made with a piece of the virus’s genetic code, which is easy to switch, although it is not clear what kind of additional testing regulators would require to pass such a change. feed.
Dormitzer said this was just the beginning “of continuous monitoring of virus changes to see if they could affect vaccination coverage.”
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The Associated Press Department of Health and Science is supported by the Science Education Department of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The AP is solely responsible for all content.